kiln ventilation

I have an electric kiln in my basement, I am still figuring out electric kiln firing, I usually fire in a gas kiln, so I am not sure how great my ventilation is. I have my kiln in front of a window and have a box fan in front of my kiln pointing twards the window, is this safe enough?

Ehhhhh, I would say probably not the best set up. I'm sure someone will chime in with facts n figures, but I think you'd be much better off if you set the fan in the window drawing air out of the room, then open another window across the room to set up cross ventilation. Better yet, look into an Envirovent so the fumes for the kiln can be directly vented outside. Even with a strong vent fan in the window setting up a cross ventilation, we used to have pretty noxious smells in other rooms when I fired the kiln at the art center. The place was always empty when I fired, but you could still smell it the next day so I suspect having a living space above would be a bad deal.

I know others will say this is not great -- but it works for me. I had my handyman install a heavy duty exhaust fan, vented properly to the outside, above my electric kiln (which is located in my laundry room in my basement). I leave it on for the entire firing. I have forced air heat in my home and for the first three or four hours of the firing, I turn my heat and furnace fan off, so that air isn't circulating through the house. I close the laundry room door and open a window upstairs. I don't smell a thing in the rest of the house. I live in Toronto -- but even so, turning off my heat for a few hours is no problem in winter. I turn it back on when all the stinky fumes have burned off.
Anticipating finger wagging and lectures to come!

I, too, have industrial exhaust fans above my kilns whiich are in a separate room in my studio which is an outbuilding, so no chance of any fumes in my house. I believe Envirovents are used not only for safety, but also to make the firing cleaner/neater. The industrial fans have a lot more pull, and coupled with an air intake (and a space under the bottom of the kiln room door) keeps any and all fumes from penetrating the rest of my studio. Before this setup, I couldn't work in the studio for all the firing time plus another 24 hours.

If you don't have two windows (one for the exhaust fan and one for fresh air) I think the Envirovent would be the prudent way to go.